Requiem
by YungVodkaDikost
Summary: After receiving the worst news any teenager could ever hear, Sakura decides that it is time to start her life anew. A new home, a new town, a new school, a cute new neighbor with a mysterious aura around him. Will Sakura be able to start over or will her parents deaths haunt her forever? Non-ninja AU. Please R&R if you enjoyed. Rated T for language. Formerly "New Beginning"
1. Prologue

_**I do NOT own Naruto or it's characters, just the plot. Now that that is out of the way, welcome to the first installment of New Beginnings!**_

* * *

Never before in her life did she think she would have to answer this kind of call, never did she think she would ever get this kind of news. These kinds of things just didn't happen to people in real life. They only happened in TV shows and animes, right?

"Sakura! Sakura, are you alright?! What's wrong?!" , a voice yelled, clearly upset and panicked.

Her eyes unseeing, her phone dropped from her hands, landing on the grass beside her as she fell to her knees. This was all a joke right?

"Sakura, answer me! Who was that on the phone?! What happened?! Sakura!"

There's that voice again. She knew that voice, but whose was it? Who did it belong to. The girl, Sakura, shook her head, musing her cherry blossom hair. She lifted her head and blinked a few times, trying to clear her vision. When her vision finally cleared, she was greeted with the sight of blond hair and an orange hoodie. Naruto her best friend. Naruto, the brother she never had.

"Sakura, what happened? You're starting to scare me." , Naruto asked, finally able calm himself down a little, not wanting to scare her. Whatever she'd been told over the phone had obviously freaked her out pretty badly. Him being his usual noisy self really wouldn't help anything at this point.

"N-Naruto they're-they're dead. Mama and papa, they're dead. They got into an accident on their way home, Naruto. They're gone...oh god, they're gone!" , Sakura muttered, close to crossing into extreme hysterics.

No words could describe the way Naruto was feeling, he'd always had a soft spot for Sakura and her family. Seeing as his own wasn't around and most of the people in their little town didn't even give him the light of day. Instead of responding, he wrapped his arms around his friend, no, his sister and brought her back against him so her face was in her chest.

The moment Naruto engulfed her in his arms, the flood gates seemed to have burst and nothing could stop the tears from falling and staining Naruto s favorite orange hoodie. Neither one knew how long they had stayed there until Naruto had heard footsteps coming their way.

Turning his head to see who was approaching he couldn't help but sigh when he saw the unmistakable spiky ink colored hair of their friend, and his life long rival, Sasuke. As their friend approached, Sasuke raised an eyebrow in question at Naruto as he watched the scene before him before he lowered himself to his knees behind Sakura. Even though the quiet boy wasn't much for touchy-feely kinds of situations, he placed a hand on the pinkettes back, silently letting her know that he, too, was there for her.

"They died, Sasuke mama and papa died" , Sakura whimpered through her tears.

Sasuke retained his silence, he offered no words of comfort because at this point all she needed was her friends support, not pointless words. He felt his heart clench at her pain. The trio had been friends since childhood, and now even though they were closing in on adulthood, little had changed in their relationships.

After what seemed like an eternity, Sakura's seemingly endless stream of tears finally ceased as she finally cried herself to sleep in her blond haired friends arms. Shifting the now sleeping girl in his arms, Naruto carefully stood with her in his arms and looked down at Sasuke who had yet to utter a single word. It seemed as if he was still processing the heartbreaking news himself. All the ink haired teenager had for family was an older brother whom he hadn't seen in quite some years. Sakura's family had taken him in and given him the family he had needed as a small child after his own parents untimely deaths. In Sasuke's eyes, it was like losing his own parents all over again. Naruto couldn't even try to imagine what was going through his friends mind at that point.

"We should get her home, Sasuke. There's no point in keeping her out here when she should be resting at home." , Naruto said quietly.

"Do you really think bringing her back to her house is the smartest idea? Maybe we should bring her back to my place, it is quiet there and she won't have to face the home she shared with them right away.", the ink haired teen suggested, finally breaking his silence.

With a single nod of agreement, the two boys set off down the street towards Sasuke s apartment, not knowing exactly what to expect when their pink haired friend, no, their sister awakened from her crying induced slumber. Thankfully the walk to Sasuke s apartment was only a ten minute walk at best. It wasn t that Sakura was heavy, she was actually quite light. The boys just wanted her to wake up in a place she was comfortable in case she needed the two boys when she awoke.

After quickly unlocking the front door to the house that was once shared with his parents, Sasuke ushered Naruto and the still sleeping pinkette into his home before closing the door and shifting the lock back into place. Not even bothering to slip their shoes off, the teenagers made their way towards the living room where Naruto carefully set Sakura down. He grabbed the worn blue throw blanket from the back of the couch and carefully laid it over her to keep Sakura from getting cold. After making sure she was comfortable on the couch, the two boys made their way to the next room, the kitchen.

* * *

When the boys got into the kitchen, they gave each other a silent look of understanding. No words were exchanged because at that point, what was there to say? They knew their friend would need them more than ever right now. But when they thought about it, would she truly want to stay in the house that she had shared with her parents? Would she want to stay in the town she grew up in, where her parents had raised her? Would she be able to bring herself to continue to attend the school that she had gone to her entire life, knowing that she would no longer see her mother, an English teacher at the school, not wandering the halls between the classes she taught? Whatever choice she made, the boys would respect her choice and support whatever she chose to do. But for now they would just be there to offer her the comfort she so desperately would need when she woke up.

* * *

She didn't know how long she had been asleep, but as her mind was adjusting to consciousness she suddenly remembered the new she had gotten just hours ago. She held in her tears to the best of her ability. Her parents wouldn't want to see her like this, they would want her to be strong. They would want her to pick herself up and make a new and better life for herself. She would stay in town until after the funeral, sell the house, and move to start a new life for herself. Leaving behind Naruto and Sasuke wouldn't be easy but she knew that they wouldn't hold her back. They would support her on the condition that she came home regularly to check in with them and that they were given a new key to her new home so they could pop in when they chose to.

Sakura was broken out of her thoughts by a crashing sound in the kitchen, opening her eyes she slowly lifted herself from the couch and finally registered where she was. Sasuke's house, the boys knew exactly what she would need when she woke up. She smiled softly at their kindness, she really couldn't have asked for better friends, brothers.

Quietly making her way towards the kitchen, she peered in at the sight in the kitchen. The boys standing in the center of the kitchen, glaring at each other. It seemed as if Naruto had attempted to cook and dropped what looked like the remaining pieces of a bottle of milk shattered on the floor. The blond should have known better than to attempt to do anything in the kitchen aside from eating a meal. He was utterly useless in the kitchen. She couldn't help the giggle that passed her lips. Both boys broke out of their glaring match and stared at her wide eyed. Just how long had she been there watching them? They couldn't help but smile at her, they d much rather she laugh at their expense than cry her heart out over the loss of her parents.

Not even bothering to ask what had happened in the kitchen or what caused the milk to be dropped, the pink haired teenager made her way passed the boys and grabbed the broom that she knew would be resting beside the fridge. She carefully began to sweep all the glass into a pile before sweeping the pile into the dustpan and disposing of it in the garbage can behind Sasuke. She really couldn't help but smile at her two friends, they really would be hopeless without her. But deep down she knew they would make due without her constant presence.

"How are you feeling, Sakura?" , Naruto asked, a slight smile on his face.

"I think I'm alright, I mean I'm still hurting but screaming and crying isn't going to make a difference. What happened happened and my parents wouldn't want me to scream and cry, they would want me to stand tall and be strong. So that's what I am going to do. I'm going to be strong for them, and move forward. It won't be easy, but loss never is. I honestly don't think I'll be able to do it alone, but I know I'll have you two to help me." , Sakura said softly, she looked at both Naruto and Sasuke with a look of pure love and adoration.

"So what are you going to do now, Sakura? Have any ideas?" , Sasuke spoke up quietly from his spot in the kitchen.

"Honestly, I think once the funeral has passed I'm going to sell the house and move a few towns over and get my life back on track. I know it may seem too soon to make those choices, it hasn't even been a full day yet but I think that is what my parents would have wanted me to do. I don't think they would have wanted me to stay cooped up in that big old house alone all the time when I wasn't at work or school. I mean obviously I'll still come back and visit and you two would have a key to my new home. You'd always be welcome." , Sakura explained. She looked up the her two best friends and expected them to try to convince her to stay. She saw only understanding in their eyes. Both boys had had a feeling that that was what she would choose and had already come to terms with it.

The three teens embraced and stayed like that for awhile until the undeniable sound of stomachs rumbling broke them out of their peaceful trance. All three couldn't help the laughter that escaped each of their mouths.

"Let's just order some pizza or something before Naruto attempts to cook again and damn near burns down the kitchen like last time we let him cook a meal." , Sasuke smirked.

The other two teens nodded in agreement and they ended up ordering four large pizzas, knowing that all three of them could finish a single pizza themselves and still go for a few more slices after. They had this down to a science after so many years of friendship.

* * *

After their dinner came and went, the crippling exhaustion of the days events bore down on all three teens and they all decided it was time for bed. Instead of separating and going to their respective rooms they d claimed in Sasuke s house they all headed towards the bedroom Sakura claimed for herself. None of them bothered with night clothes as Sakura crawled into the middle and the boys climbed in on opposite sides of the bed. She faced away from Naruto who threw an arm comfortingly around her waist and pulled her close. Sasuke laid facing her and he too, threw and arm around her middle and drew himself as close to her as he could. After exchanging tired good nights the three easily fell into dreamland.

* * *

Two weeks past since Sakura had gotten the news of her parents deaths and the funeral had come and gone. The house had been easily sold and packed. And now here she stood in front of the moving truck that was to take her and her belongings to her new home in Iwagakure. While she was nervous, she was also excited to start anew. Saying goodbye to her school and childhood home hadn't been easy but saying goodbye to Naruto and Sasuke would probably be the hardest thing she'd had to do in her life. Aside from saying goodbye to her parents.

After giving her two best friends keys to her new apartment and giving them her new address she engulfed them both in a heartfelt hug. She poured out every ounce of affection and love that she possessed into their embrace, which they easily returned.

"I love you two, I'll come home as soon as possible to visit, stay out of trouble okay? Don't try to cook again Naruto, you know you can't, just accept it. Sasuke, try not to be so hard on him, you two need each other since I won't always be around right now. And please you two-" , Sakura was cut off by Sasuke putting a hand over her mouth. She frowned at her ink haired friend and raised an eyebrow in question.

"We'll be fine Sakura, we're grown men, don't worry so much." , he smirked. She had always been a mother hen to the both of them, even as children. It seemed that part of her would never go away, and the teens didn't want it any other way.

With one last hug to each boy and promises to call once she reached her new home, Sakura made her way to the passenger side of the moving van. Opening the door, she hoisted herself into the van and closed the door. She gave her friends one last wave and a sad smile before signaling the driver that she was ready to go.

With one final look at her hometown, Sakura looked towards the horizon of her new life. Her new beginning.

* * *

 _ **Well there's the prologue to this story heh. First time trying to write a Naruto story so hopefully it wasn't too terrible. As always, please leave a review if you enjoyed so I know if I should continue this story! Any criticism is greatly appreciated and welcomed. Until next time!**_


	2. Chapter 1

**Sadly I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

New lonely apartment, furniture old and new littering random parts of the floor, still needing a new home within the confines of her new abode. Still taped boxes stacked neatly in all corners of what was eventually going to be her living room. A thick layer of dust covered the floors and walls, not even the ceiling was spared from the dust. A girl of seventeen brushed her cherry blossom covered locks out of her drooping green eyes, she d been at this for hours. Grab a box, haul it up three flights of stairs, and repeat. She never wanted to move again, especially if she had to do it alone. But what could she do? She'd just moved from her home town of Konoha, after her parents deaths she saw no point in staying there and having to deal with everyone's pity. That was the last thing she wanted. So she'd packed up her house, sold it, and moved to a new town for a new life.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, every box and piece of furniture was hauled into her new home. Making her way over to her couch, she plopped herself down unceremoniously, resulting in a huge cloud of dust to engulf her. After coughing for what seemed like ages, she sat up and took a good look at her new home. Finally taking in the fact that she was starting her life over in a new town, hell, in just one week she would be starting at a new school as well. Sadly enough, she would be starting her senior year of high school at a new school. That was definitely something she didn't want to think about at the moment. Starting her final year of school with no friends in this town wasn't the most ideal but it was better than starting in the middle of the year. At least she'd be starting the year fresh, right?

* * *

After about an hour of pondering her choices and really taking in her new life, she heard a knock at her door. It was strange to say the least. Considering she knew nobody in this town, let alone anyone in her building. After she heard the knock at her door again, she decided it was time to see who was coming to meet the new neighbor.

After dodging a few boxes, she finally made it to her door and quickly peeked through the peephole in her door. She was met with the sight of bright blue eyes and what looked like blond hair. Quickly unlocking the door she opened it slightly and peered out at her guest.

"Yes, may I help you?" , she asked timidly, she wasn't proud to say she'd never been good with new people but she supposed now that it was just her it was about time she got over this irrational fear of hers. Her friends weren't here to do the talking like they normally would in these kinds of situations anymore.

"I just wanted to see who the new neighbor was here, yeah. I'm Deidara, I live two doors down." , said her guest, Deidara, as he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder to the right.

"I'm Sakura, nice to meet you" , Sakura replied quietly. She was staring at her feet, she couldn't even bring herself to look him in the eye. she was silently grateful that only one was showing as his long blond hair was covering his left eye. She couldn't help but feel a little rude. He was only coming to say hello, nothing to be scared about. She internally sighed at her lack of self confidence. Though she was quiet, she'd had so much of it until her parents had died, save for not being good at social interaction with new people. She mentally scolded herself once again about being as shy as she was being at the moment.

"Well, I just figured I should come say hello and meet my new neighbor, yeah?" , Deidara said, seemly undisturbed by her lack of eye contact. Which she was eternally grateful for. She didn't want to have him call her out of it when she'd only just met the guy.

"Thank you for coming and welcoming me to the building, that was thoughtful of you." , she said, smiling slightly, lifting her head a little so he could see her face just a bit more.

"Well I guess I ll see you around then, yeah?" Deidara asked as he turned to head back to what Sakura suspected was his apartment.

"Of course, feel free to stop by and say hi anytime you'd like." , she nodded.

With a wave he was gone, as his hand lowered Sakura couldn't help but notice something on his hand that looked kind of like a mouth from afar. She also noticed that there seemed to be an almost lonely and mysterious aura that followed him. She shook her head, if he wanted some kind of tattoo on his body, that was his choice. And as for the strange aura he gave off, well, she'd just have to wait and see on that one. She didn't like having her life being pried at so she wasn't about to do it to a person she had just met. She wasn't going to judge him about his possible tattoo, especially when she wasn't even sure if what she saw was a tattoo at all. Smiling softly to herself, she closed her door and redid the locks before turning towards the chaos that was currently her living room. With a deep breath she set to work putting away everything she could before night began to far and her eyelids started to become heavy.

* * *

After tracking down the boxes that held her shampoo and other bath time necessities, she made her way towards her single bathroom. Though her apartment wasn't the biggest, her bathroom sure was spacious. After shedding her clothing, she stepped under the hot spray of water. She couldn't help the contented sigh that left her lips. After the long day of moving she'd had, she seriously needed a nice hot shower.

Once she had washed away all the sweat and dust from the day, she cut the water off and wrapped a towel around her midsection before making her way to her bedroom. Her bare feet padded across hardwood flooring, oak she guessed by the sandy brown color that seemed top lie beneath the layer of dust she had yet to clean up. Tomorrow, she decided, she needed give this place the cleaning it truly and desperately needed.

Sighing, Sakura pushed the door open to the room that was eventually going to be her bedroom before looking for the box she had clearly labeled "CLOTHES" . After what felt like an eternity of sorting through random boxes that she had thrown within the rooms confines, she dug out a plain black cotton t-shirt and a white pair of basketball shorts that hung low on her hips, at least two sizes too big for her slim figure. She smiled sadly, these had belonged to Sasuke, one of her best friends from her home town. She had stolen them long ago after he had fallen asleep at the house she once shared with her parents. Leaving Sasuke, Naruto, and all of her other friends was the hardest thing she had ever had to do, aside from selling the house her parents had raised her in before their untimely deaths.

Sakura closed her eyes and let out a shaky sigh, she had to be strong. There was nobody here to tell her it was all going to be alright, that she would make it through this. Taking a deep breath, she let out one last sigh opened her eyes. Her eyes shone with determination, tomorrow was a new day and soon she would start this new life of hers right. She had to be strong and live her life. It was what her parents would have wanted for her. She couldn't help but smile as she thought of her parents faces, smiling proudly at her. In the short time since their deaths she really had grown quite a bit. If she was going to make it on her own, she had to grow up, so that's what she did.

As night fell upon her new home, Sakura let out a yawn. It had really been a long day. Grabbing her phone out of her too big shorts pockets, she turned it on and peered down at the device, she couldn't help but frown. Nobody had texted her or called to make sure her move had gone okay. She decided to think on that later, it was already nearing ten at night. She really had lost track of time, letting out another yawn she decided it was time for bed. At least she had had enough sense to make sure to make her bed right away instead of putting it off until later.

After a quick dig through a box for her phone charger, Sakura plugged her phone in and set in on the table that sat next to the bed. She quickly pealed back her black and blue striped comforter before turning off the lights and crawling under her blankets. It really had been a long day, from moving everything into her new apartment, to meeting the neighbor, to thinking about her deceased parents, to missing her friends back home, to wondering if they missed her just as much as she missed them. She'd only been gone a day and it already seemed like she hadn't seen any of her friends in ages.

Sakura's thoughts began to drift as her eyelids began to droop and not long after, the comforting embrace of sleep consumed her.


	3. Chapter 2

_**Once again, I do not own Naruto.**_

* * *

There's an old saying that says a mother should never have to bury her children, but when you think of it logically, what child wants to have to bury there parent in return. A teenager sits beneath an old elm tree pondering this saying and can't help but frown at the thought. She'd had to bury not only her mother, but her father as well. And at the same time no less, the gods really did have a way of testing you, in some of the most painful and bullshit ways. She'd never asked for any of this, what had she done to deserve such a fate? Luckily enough for Sakura, she was old enough where she wouldn't have to be put in to the foster care system, but that didn't make this any easier. Not by a long shot. Before she knew it, a week had passed since she moved from her home town and tomorrow she would really be starting over. School began tomorrow for her. A new school at the end of her high school career, not the most appealing but she would do as the ninjas in the tales of old did, she would endure.

Sakura hadn't realized how much time had passed since she'd found herself a few blocks from her new apartment building and at this park but she had found some semblance of peace here. She could hear the joyous giggling of children going down the slides, children asking their parents for another push on the swings. There was that word again, parents, she knew she shouldn't feel bad for being jealous that they still had theirs but what could she do? She couldn't blame a small child for having what she had lost, it would only make things hurt worse.

After another twenty minutes of deep thought and after giving herself a good pep talk, she decided it was time to go home and prepare herself for her new school tomorrow. She was grateful that this school didn't require their students to wear a uniform, somehow even the most modest uniforms could become a thing of sex appeal for a closet pervert or the preppier girls at school that felt it was important to hike their skirt up as high as possible without showing off the curve of their ass to the world. Just the mental picture made Sakura cringe, why would you want such negative attention?

Catching herself once again before her thoughts got away from her again, she stood from her seat at the underside of the tree and started to make her way back home. It was only a fifteen minute walk at her slowest, and while she had plenty to do, she didn't feel like rushing back to her empty apartment. Maybe she should get a cat, at least she'd have someone to snuggle with at night since her boys weren't here to sneak into her home. Speaking of the boys, they still hadn't called her, not so much of a text. And it had been over a week since she'd left. Shaking her head, pink bangs falling into her eyes, Sakura willed the thoughts of not only losing her family but her self appointed brothers on top of it to leave. That was one thing she just couldn't deal with right now.

Once again lost in her thoughts, Sakura lost track of where she was going and couldn't help but realize this until she felt her body connect with something hard. And warm? And kind of human feeling?

"Hey...you alright?"

Sakura winced and looked up to find that she had indeed ran into someone, a guy about three inches taller than herself with a shock of red hair framing his face. His hair was unruly but not unpleasently so. He was actually kind of good looking. Deep brown eyes bored into her and he took in the small girl who had run straight into him. He raised a delicate red eyebrow at her, willing her to answer his question.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going...", Sakura mumbled quietly, not quite meeting his gaze.

"It's fine, but you didn't answer my question. Are you alright, Pinky?", the red haired smirked.

"Oh, uhm, I'm alright. I'm Sakura...", she replied.

"Sasori. Have a good night, Sakura, and watch where you're walking alright? Be more careful.", the red head, Sasori smirked before stepping away from the timid pink haired teen and continuing onward down the pavement.

"You too, and thank you.", Sakura whispered before she continued towards her apartment.

* * *

Opening the door to her apartment building, Sakura was more than determined to get her ass into the shower and into some more comfortable clothing before hitting the sheets. She'd definitely need a good nights sleep if she was going to face a new school tomorrow. At least her apartment was finally cleaned and free of dust. Breaking out of her musings with a small smile, Sakura made her way up the stairs to her apartment. As she walked up to her door, she fished her keys out of the pockets of her jeans but stopped short when she heard a crash from the apartment a couple doors down from her own. With a raised eyebrow she waited to see if she could hear anything else. When another crash was heard, Sakura steeled her nerves and made her way towards her neighbors door.

She raised her hand to knock on the door but was cut short when the door was trust open and she was greeted with yet another body but this time it was falling on her. With a squeal that she wasn't all too proud of she crashed to the ground and wheezed as all the breath was forced out of her lungs as the other body landed fullforce onto her much smaller frame. Sweet relief was almost immediate as she felt the extra weight being lifted off of her.

"Uh, ma'am? You alright? Deidara didn't kill you with his fat ass did he?", a black haired man asked, at least she was assuming he was a dude. It was kind of hard to tell with her head spinning, the voice was masculine but you never knew with some people these days.

"Hey! I am not fat, yeah! And Sakura, what the hell are you doing out here, un?", Deidara retorted as her offered said girl a hand to help her up.

"Heard a crash, got worried, wanted to know what was wrong", Sakura groaned as she accepted the blonds hand and hoisted herself off the floor. She shook her head and blinked a few times while she tried to get her head to stop spinning.

"Wait, Sakura? As in Sakura Haruno? I thought that hair color was familiar.", the black haired man questioned as he looked down at Sakura as if he was trying to stare into her very soul.

"Uh yeah, who are you exactly?", she asked, trying to resist the urge to hide behind her blond neighbor. He seemed to understand that she was uncomfortable so Deidara placed a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

"I thought you would have recognized me, seeing as you're one of my foolish little brothers friends. I'm Itachi Uchiha...", Itachi replied.

The minute the name registered into her mind, all shyness forgotten, Sakura rushed at Itachi and delivered the hardest punch she'd ever had to conjure. She couldn't help but feel a sick satisfaction when she felt her fist connect with his throat. Itachi fell to his knees grasping his throat and wheezing for breath. Deidara just stood there in the place Sakura had once stood, his jaw on the floor. Not only had she shown more emotion than he thought the girl was capable of, but she'd managed to catch Itachi off guard and actually land a hit. His eyes darted back and forth between the two, completely at a loss as to what he was supposed to do.

"You little brother sends his regards, asshole.", Sakura sneered, this was the big brother that had hurt Sasuke. And since he wasn't here to hit Itachi himself, she would just have to do it for him, right? Right. She didn't even know why she was supposed to hit him but Sasuke always told herself and Naruto that if they ever ran into his brother and he wasn't around, to give him a good punch for him. He'd never had much to say about his brother, and when he did, it wasn't anything good to say. Whatever the elder Uchiha had done, it couldn't have been good.

"Why'd you hit Itachi, yeah? How do you even know him?", Deidara asked, finally finding his voice.

"I'm friends with his brother Sasuke, he always said if I ever ran into his brother to give him a good punch in the throat. Never told me why though.", she replied sheepishly, now that she thought about it, hitting someone when you didn't know why was kind of a stupid thing to do. Oh well, can't do a whole lot about it now.

"You don't even know why you were supposed to hit him, yeah?!", the blond exclaimed. At his pink haired neighbors nod, he couldn't help but sweat drop.

"He hold a grudge against me from when we were younger, no harm done Sakura, I can't blame you for being a loyal friend to my brother.", Itachi wheezed.

Sakura couldn't believe her ears, not only wasn't this man angry with her for hitting him, he was happy that she did. Sakura's sleepy brain really couldn't deal with this right now. She needed a shower, and her bed, like yesterday. She decided that rather than answering him, she'd just nod dumbly. She didn't know how she was supposed to respond to that anyways.

"Well, uhm, if everything is fine now I'm going to go home and go to bed now...I have school tomorrow and I don't want to over sleep..", she said quietly. When both men nodded, Sakura quickly turned around and rushed back towards her apartment. After unlocking her door quickly, she stepped inside and proceeded to get ready for the next day.

* * *

After a quick shower and a change of cloths, Sakura made her way towards her bed a peeled back her covers. She quickly checked her phone, no new messages, no nothing from her friends. With a sigh, she set her alarm for the morning and plugged her cell in and set it on her nightstand. She couldn't help but feel just a little bit lonely. Yes, she knew her friends had school and they were busy but how long did it take to shoot her a quick text?

Deciding she'd try to call one of them tomorrow after she got home from school, Sakura sunk herself into the confines of her bed and drifted off to sleep before her head hit the pillow.

* * *

Both men watched as the pink haired neighbor walked back towards her apartment, they waited until the door was shut firmly before either one of them spoke. Once they heard the click of her door closing and the tell-tale sign that her door was once again locked, Deidara turned to Itachi.

"So, she's friends with the brat, yeah?", the blond asked his dark haired friend.

"Yes, they've been friends since they were young. I'm not sure why she'd here exactly, or why she moved away from them.", Itachi replied, his brow creased as he thought about the situation they had found themselves in.

"I don't know, yeah. But she looks pretty lonely, I've only met her once before and she was pretty damn timid. When she realized who you were and launched herself at you that was the most emotion she'd shown since she's been here.", Deidara sighed.

"Well, I suppose we'll just have to keep an eye on her. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to call my foolish little brother and find out exactly why she is no longer in Konoha and here in Iwa.", Itachi sighed as he made his way back into his friends apartment.

Nodding his head in agreement, Deidara made his way back into his apartment and closed the door with a soft click and redid the lock.

 _Just who is this girl...and why do I feel like I need to take her loneliness away..?_


	4. Chapter 3

**And I'm back! Kinda. Thank you again to everyone who has either followed or favorited this story! This chapter gave me quite a headache to write and I'm honestly pretty disappointed in it but what can ya do? Again thank you for reading and if you enjoyed please leave a review to let me know! Any ideas that you would like to contribute to the story are always welcomed!**

 **S Lyubov'yu,**

 **Casper**

* * *

Sakura woke with a start the minute her phone decided it was time to get out of bed and get ready for school. She had to resist the urge to smash the innocent device into a million pieces and go back to sleep, but alas that wasn't an option. After the events that had occurred outside to Deidara's apartment the night before she'd found it exceedingly difficult to fall asleep the night before. Not only had she shown more emotion in ten minutes than she had in the last month, but she'd actually decked a dude twice her size and not gotten the crap beaten out of her in return. And what was more confusing was the fact that it had been Sasuke's ever missing brother that she had had the gall to hit. Without a legit reason, she reminded herself.

Deciding it was too early to think back on such things, the pink haired teen reached across her pillow and grabbed her phone before turning off the obnoxious alarm. Slowly stretching, she couldn't help but sigh when she felt her back pop. She quickly threw her blankets off her body before making her way towards her bathroom for a quick shower. She was lucky, she didn't like taking longer than needed showers. Just a quick soak, suds up, rinse, condition and wash body, rinse once more, and get your ass out of the tub. She quickly rid herself of her pajamas and turned the shower on and waited until the water heated to a near scalding temperature, the last thing she wanted this morning was to get sprayed with near freezing water. It was quite an unpleasant feeling, she'd learned from experience.

Once she was satisfied that her body was clean, she shut the water off and reached for the towel she had placed on the back of the toilet and wrapped it around her midsection before exiting her bathroom and heading back toward her bedroom. After quickly drying her body she quickly grabbed a clean pair of undergarments and slid them on before using her towel to dry her hair. With one hand keeping the towel in place on her head, Sakura walked over to her closet and stared into its confines to figure out what she was going to wear on her first day. Deciding that she wanted to draw as little attention to herself as possible, she settled for a plain black cotton shirt and a pair of skinny blue jeans. With there being nothing special about her outfit, people were sure to leave her alone. She just wanted to get through her final year of high school and be done with the whole ordeal. After quickly dressing herself and combing her hair she decided it was time to get some breakfast into her system before it was time for her to head towards her school.

After settling for a boring breakfast of buttered toast and a glass of orange juice, Sakura grabbed her backpack and her keys and slid her feet into a pair of purple high topped shoes and stepped out into the hallway of her apartment building. The hallway was pretty quiet but she figured that most people wouldn't be up at seven in the morning unless they absolutely had to be. After quickly locking her front door and placing her keys into her pocket, she made her way down the hallway, down the stairs, and out of her apartment building. If memory served, her new high school was only about a ten minute walk from her building, in the opposite direction of the park she had found recently. Deciding that it was time to get this over with, Sakura steeled her nerves and began her short walk towards her new school.

* * *

After an uneventful walk to school, Sakura couldn't help but be a bit intimidated by the sheer size of the place. She couldn't help but figured that she could fit at least four of her old high schools into the building. She was sure she was going to get lost at least once before the final bell of the day rang. She quickly made her way up the stairs leading the the entrance and made a beeline in the general direction that she suspected the main office would be. After about five minutes of walking, she easily found her way to the doors of the office. She was surprised that in her short walk through the school that she hadn't run into a single student, sure she was early but she didn't think she was early enough to be the only student in the building. Shrugging her shoulders, she decided it wasn't her problem if people wanted to come at the last minute. Realizing that she was just standing outside the door to the office, she sighed and opened the door and stepped inside.

She couldn't help but notice how utterly typical the office looked, main desk right in front of her, what seemed like a conference room to her right, and a door the her left that was obviously the principals office. The plaque on the door to her left read "Tsunade", she could only assume that the principal of this school preferred to be called by their first name rather than their last. Good, that was less that she had to remember. She quietly walked up the the secretaries desk in front of her and waited for the black haired woman to stop typing and look up from her computer. What did secretaries even do on their computers, she wondered. Probably played a lot of Mine Sweeper, not that anyone actually knew how the damn game was played.

"Why hello there, I assume you are Miss Haruno the new transfer student?", the secretary asked, not looking up from whatever she was doing at her computer.

"Yes, that's me. I was wondering if I could get my schedule and my locker number and combo?", Sakura responded quietly.

A few clicks and the hum of the printer behind her later, the secretary handed Sakura the papers she had requested. Sakura quickly scanned over her schedule, committing her classes to memory and easily memorizing her lockers combination. How hard could 5-2-13 be to remember? Murmuring a soft thank you, the pink haired teen turned around and exited the office to begin her search for her locker. She had apparently been in there a lot longer than it had seemed since there was now a bunch of students wandering the hallways and depositing things in their lockers. She looked down at the papers in her hand and figured her locker should be just down the hall from her.

* * *

After a short walk and a few instances of dodging random bodies of people who weren't paying attention to their surroundings later, Sakura found her locker and quickly deposited everything she wouldn't need for her first class into the confines of the metal prison. She shut the door to her locker quietly and turned to head to her first class when she felt herself run into a body. Slowly she lifted her head so she could apologize profusely, she was greeted with a sight that she could have sworn she'd seen before. Bright red unruly hair, brown eyes, a bored expression, where had she seen him before.

"I'm sorry!", she squeaked.

"It's quite alright, little girl.", the red head responded, smirking slightly at her fidgeting. Twice in one week she had run into him, sadly she didn't seem to recognize him.

"I'm no little girl! You're hardly taller than me!", she frowned.

She was about to rip into him further but the telltale ring of the morning bell signaled her that it was time for her to head towards the classroom. After sidestepping around the redhead, she quickly made her way down the hall towards her first class of the day.

Math, the biggest asshole of all educational institutions. Ninety percent of what she was going to learn in this class wasn't anything she was even going to use in everyday life. What the hell was knowing how to find the diameter of a circle going to further her future as a doctor? Exactly, it wasn't. But, she wasn't about to skip her first class on her first day at her new school. Wouldn't that just be a beautiful impression on her new teachers and fellow students? Sighing, she pushed open the door to the classroom and took the furthest seat from the front, in the way back right next to the window. Not that there was much to look at sadly, but it was better than having to stare at the backs of the heads of a bunch of people she didn't know. And a part of her didn't even want to know them. She wanted her friends back home, but they'd yet to contact her since she moved to Iwa. Maybe a few new friends wouldn't hurt? She inwardly sighed at the thought.

She was broken out of her thoughts by the bell ringing once again, signaling the students that it was time for class to begin. Oh joy, here we go! She could hear students jumping off of desks and taking their seats as the teacher walked into the classroom. She spared him a quick glance and couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow at his appearance. He had gravity defying silver hair, wore a strange mask that hid most of his face, and wore a black eye patch over his left eye. What struck her as odd more than anything was the fact that he was carrying around a popular smut series book in his hand. You didn't have to be an adult to know what the cover of an _Icha Icha_ book looked like. How the hell did he think that bringing such a book to a classroom full of hormonal teenagers was a good idea? Oh well, wasn't her problem in the slightest. With a shrug of her shoulders, she returned her gaze out the window and waited for him to notice her. She kind of hoped he wouldn't.

"Wow Sensei, you aren't late for once.", a student with blond hair commented, a few other students chuckled with amusement.

"Ahh well, I didn't want to make too bad of an impression on our new students you see.", the teacher replied, his eye crinkling in what could be assume was caused by him smiling.

"You mean there's more than one?", another student spoke up.

Sakura tried to shrink herself down in her seat, maybe if she slid down far enough the teacher wouldn't notice her.

"We have two new students actually. It would seem one is already in here. I couldn't say where the other one is though...", the silver haired man replied.

Before anybody else could wonder where the other transfer student was, the door to the classroom opened and Sakura was greeted with the sight of the red head that she had run into before she had gotten to class. Just her luck.

"My apologies for being late, I seem to have lost my way while heading to the classroom", the red head said, his bored look never wavering.

"No problem at all, the school is quite easy to get lost in. While you are up here why don't you introduce yourself before I have the other newbie introduce herself.", Sensei replied.

"My name is Sasori, a pleasure I'm sure.", Sasori said before sitting in an empty desk two seats away from Sakura, leaving an empty seat in between them. It seemed the other students tried to avoid sitting in the back of the class if they could avoid it. Sasori didn't seem too bothered by that.

"Now then, would our other new student like to stand up and introduce themselves?", Sensei asked.

Sighing, Sakura stood up, her eyes never leaving the window," My name is Sakura Haruno, a pleasure." She sat back down in her desk and propped her chin in the palm of her hand.

"Pleasure to meet the two of you and welcome to Iwa. I'm Kakashi Hatake. Either call me Kakashi or Sensei, I don't really care which.", Kakashi stated.,"Now if everyone will open their text books to page 394 we can begin."

* * *

Her classes seemed to blue together, after four more classes it was finally time for lunch. Not that she was really all that hungry but everybody could use a break after sitting on their ass for five hours. The only time she'd really moved around was either between classes when she had to, or when her teachers wanted her to stand up and introduce herself yet again to basically all the same people. It all seemed a bit pointless to her, but she wasn't about to tell her teacher that. She didn't need everybody thinking she was a bitch or too good for them. Especially on her first day, if they wanted to think of her like that in the future, they could go right ahead. But on her first day? That would be just annoying.

Deciding that sitting outside would be nice and quite, Sakura made her way towards the courtyard to find herself a nice shady tree to sit against. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a book and flipped it to the page she had left off on. She had a thirty minute lunch period so she might as well catch up on some reading while she had the chance, considering with the sheer amount of homework she had been assigned already there was no way she was going to get any reading done when she got home later.

She couldn't help but sigh when she heard foot steps crunching through the grass and started to look up when she saw a pair of legs stop about a foot away from where she was sitting. She quickly marked her page, so much for reading. She looked up and raised an eyebrow when she realized that her visitor was none other than Sasori.

"Something I can help you with, Sasori?", she asked with a small smile.

"Mind if I sit? It would seem I've attracted a fan club and they are beginning to try my patience.", he smirked.

"Sure, why not, it isn't like I own the tree or anything. You don't have to ask.", the pinkette returned his smirk.

Sasori let out a soft chuckle before taking a seat next to Sakura. He couldn't help but find the pink haired girl interesting. She was kind and polite but hadn't spoken to anybody but the teachers all day. Except for himself when she had bumped into him this morning. It wasn't like people hadn't tried to talk to her either, many of the boys in class had tried to get her attention but she hadn't given them so much as a glance. Girls had tried to gossip with her but had been greeted with the same result. Not even so much as a glance. But when he spoke to her, she actually looked at him and responded. Score one for Sasori, random ass kids zero.

"So, how's your day so far Sakura? I see you haven't spoken to much of anyone all day. There a reason for that?", Sasori asked, he had to ask.

"It's fine. The only reason I haven't talked to anybody, aside from you and the teachers, is because I can tell that the males only want one thing from me. And I'm sorry, but they're better off looking somewhere else if they want some easy girl to sleep with. And as for the girls, I could really care less about who is dating who or who did what. I don't know them, nor do I care to, so why would I even offer a response. You know?", Sakura responded with a smile.

"How do you know I am not like the other boys and want such a thing from you?," he smirked.

Sakura rolled her eyes,"Really? You don't look like the kind of guy who would even want to put in that kind of effort with anybody."

"True indeed.", he chuckled.

The two fell into a comfortable silence. Sakura pulled her book back out and continued reading where she had left off. Sasori on the other hand, reached into his own bag and pulled out a sketchbook and began to draw. Few words were exchanged and neither of the two were bothered. Sadly their peaceful quiet had to end and the bell signaling that lunch was over rang. Both let out a sigh and put their books back in their bags before standing up.

"What class do you have next, Sasori?", Sakura asked, so far she had only had once class with him and that was math.

"Physical Education, but I was entertaining the thought of ditching that class.", Sasori answered.

"Ugh, me too. Come to class so I don't have to suffer alone", Sakura groaned.

"Fine, fine, only because you asked so nicely.", he chuckled.

* * *

After a quick run to their respective lockers, the duo made their way towards the locker rooms to change into their gym cloths. Again, Sakura thanked the gods that there wasn't a standard uniform for this class. She inwardly shuttered at the thought of having to wear anything remotely close to her old schools gym uniform. Those godforsaken uniforms had left little to the imagination and were horribly uncomfortable. After switching out her regular clothing for a plain white t-shirt and a black pair of basketball shorts she made her way out of the locker room.

She hid her surprise when she saw that Sasori had waited outside the locker room for her instead of heading off towards to gym without her. Nodding her thanks the two made their way to the gym and started their stretches together, away from all of the other students. She didn't know why, but she felt more comfortable with Sasori than she had with anybody else in quite some time. But rather than question it, she accepted it. Yes, nobody could replace the friends she had back home but perhaps having a friend or two at school couldn't hurt. After all, Sasori wasn't douche-y like the other boys that had tried to talk to her since she got to school. He was calm and soft spoken, he didn't make unneeded comments and didn't ask her stupid questions. He was the complete opposite from all the other boys she had encountered today.

It seemed as if the gods had taken mercy on their souls since the gym teacher, a rather eccentric man with a black bowl cut and a green jump suit, declared that they should all show off their 'youthfullness' by having a free day in the gym. Both asked themselves if 'youthfullness' was even a word but were grateful nonetheless. Deciding that they were going to take advantage of the free day, the duo quickly made their way to the bleachers and parked their asses on them for the duration of the period. The watched the other students and quietly laughed like children every time someone was either nailed in the head with a ball or when someone tripped over their shoelaces and face planted. The two didn't exchange any words but their silence wasn't an uncomfortable one. Like during lunch, it was quite peaceful.

They both resisted the urge to praise the gods when the bell signaling the end of the period rang. Though they didn't do anything but sit on the bleachers and laugh at other students ridiculous antics, the class wasn't exactly something they wanted to sit in all day. They both rose from their seats and they quickly made their way back to the locker rooms to change back into their regular cloths. Both not bothering to bring their gym cloths home to wash, considering all they did was sit in them for an hour.

"There's only one class left for the day, what do you have next?", Sasori asked, secretly hoping she'd have his last class with him. He had noticed that when she was with him his annoying little fan club left him alone.

"Art is my last class of the day, please tell me you'll be joining me.", Sakura groaned, she really didn't want to be in that class with all the other students. Plus after secretly peeking at his sketch book earlier, she really wanted to see just how artistic her new red headed friend was.

"Looks like we have the same class next, I won't lie. I was really hoping I wouldn't be stuck in that class alone.", the red head chuckled.

Sakura nodded in agreement and the two quickly made their way towards the art room.

* * *

The duo found the art room with little difficulty and made their way to the back of the classroom and sat at one of the tables next to each other. Both were eternally grateful that nobody took the two seats in front of them. They weren't going to complain about having the entire table to themselves. When the bell rang once again, the two opened their respective sketchbooks and began drawing whatever seemed ideal at that moment. While Sakura herself wasn't much of an artist, she wasn't terrible either. Sasori on the other hand, she had to resist the urge to gape at the beauty of his drawings.

"Alright class, your assignment today is to draw your table partner. If the table is full, figure out yourselves who is going to draw who. I want your rough sketches by the end of the period.", the art teacher, Asuma said before looking over the previous periods works.

"Alright, do you want to draw me first or do you want to go first? I'll warn you, I'm not that great at drawing", Sakura mumbled, slightly embarrassed that she was going to have to attempt to draw her new friend.

"I'm sure it'll be fine but if it makes you feel better, I'll go first", Sasori offered, he couldn't help but be slightly amused by her embarrassment. She couldn't be as bad as one of his old friends, now that brat was terrible at drawing, he should stick to his clay.

"If you don't mind. Just don't laugh at my end result when it's my turn, alright?", she mumbled. If she was going to draw Sasori she was really going to need to mentally prepare herself. She couldn't decide if drawing the outline of his unruly hair was going to be more difficult than drawing his seemingly ever present bored look. She'd just have to grit her teeth and deal with it.

Nodding his head in understanding, he reached for his pencil and began his drawing. Other than the occasional comment about her fidgeting, Sasori focused solely on the drawing before him. It only took him about fifteen minute to get her outlining done and another five to add her facial features. When he finished he slid his finished product over to the pink haired teen and couldn't help the smug smirk that graced his lips when she openly gaped at the drawing.

"Sasori, you being this good at drawing should be illegal, this only proves that I'm going to butcher my drawing of you.", she groaned.

"Just do your best Sakura, I promise I won't laugh.", he chuckled.

Sighing, she decided it was better to just get this over with. There was a half hour left of the period and if she was going to make an ass out of herself with her drawing skills, she was going to do it with dignity. After a moment of mental preparation, she set to work on her drawing. Surprisingly enough, his hair wasn't as difficult as she had thought it was going to be. After drawing the slant of his nose, she started his eyes, which she was again surprised to find that they didn't look half bad either. Instead of drawing his perpetual look of boredom, she decided that the smug bastard was going to sport that smirk of his. She herself smirked at the thought.

After another fifteen minutes, she deducted that it was good enough and slid it towards the red head. She waited nervously for him to start laughing at her skill, even though he had promised that he wouldn't. When no sound came from his lips, Sakura chanced a look at her partner and raised an eyebrow at him. The bastard was smirking at her drawing.

"I know it's terrible. Shut up.", she muttered.

"Actually, it's quite the opposite, sure it could be better but it's actually not that bad.", he complimented.

Sakura was sure she was hearing things, the artistic genius sitting next to her had complimented her art. What the hell? Did she hear him right?

Sasori chuckled softly at her confused expression before standing from his seat and went to hand their drawings into the teacher. When he came back, he reclined back in his chair and waited for the end of the day bell to ring. If memory served, it should be ringing any second now. He noticed that when he had gotten up to turn in their drawings, Sakura had pulled her book out and had started reading again. He closed his eyes and waited for the bell to ring.

About five minutes later the end of the day bell rang and every student quickly made their way out the door and rushed towards their lockers. It seemed Sakura and Sasori weren't the only ones eager to be freed from the confines of the school building.

* * *

"So, any plans after school?", Sakura asked.

"Going to go visit my grandmother and then get all this godforsaken homework done. After that, I don't have a clue. You?", he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Going to get all this homework done and then probably nothing. I just moved to town and so far the only people I know are you and my neighbor. And my neighbor is quite...interesting.", she smirked.

"Well, why don't we exchange phone numbers and if we feel like we're going to die of boredom we'll find something to do?", he suggested.

Nodding, Sakura reached inside her pocket and handed Sasori her phone with an open contact open. He gave her his phone as well and the duo set to work on putting their numbers into each others phones and picking their own ring and text tones. When both were satisfied that everything was perfect, they handed the phones back to the respective owners.

"Well, my place is that way", Sakura said, pointing to the right.

"And mine is that way.", Sasori responded, pointing to the left.

"Meet you at the gates in the morning?", she asked.

"Agreed.", he nodded.

Both exchanged quick goodbyes and parted towards their homes. Both were deep in thought, they both couldn't believe that within three hours the two had become friends. It felt like they had known each other for years, instead of a few hours. Neither teen was going to complain about that fact though, they quickly found that they enjoyed each others company. The silences were far from uncomfortable and they both found that the other was quite humorous in their own way.

Both couldn't help but think that maybe transferring to Iwa wasn't as bad as they had thought.

* * *

 _"Hey Deidara, you free tonight? Once I get all my homework done, I'm not going to have much of anything to do"_ Send.

Buzz buzz

 _"I'm free tonight, yeah. Come over whenever. Maybe I'll introduce you to my cute new neighbor, un."_ Send.

Buzz Buzz

 _"Sounds good, brat. I'll text you when I'm on my way over."_ Send.

* * *

 **Whooooo Another chapter done! This is by far the longest chapter I've ever written for anything. And I'm not even satisfied with it. But what is a girl to do? Oh well, as always. If you enjoyed, review, favorite, and follow! I don't have a beta for this story so if there are any mistakes that I missed I'm sorry! If there are mistakes, let me know so I can fix them, yeah?**


	5. Chapter 4

**Wow, I've actually been getting a lot more writing done lately than I have in a long time. Shocking. Sadly, the website is being funky and not sending out e-mails letting people know that the story has been updated. Kinda sucky. I had issues uploading the last chapter too. Hopefully the problem will be fixed soon. As always, enjoy and favorite, follow, and review if you enjoyed!**

 **S Lyubov'yu.**

 **Casper**

* * *

Deidara sighed and set his phone down, he hadn't heard from Sasori in quite some time. So when he had called a month prior and told him that he was moving to Iwa, he had been nothing short of surprised. Sasori had always told him that he had planed to stay in Suna for the rest of his life. The red head sure did like the desert, even though the poor guy couldn't tan worth a damn and always ended up looking like a damned lobster come the middle of the summer. The blond chuckled at the thought of the red head covered in aloe creams to help calm the stinging of his skin. He always made a point to go up at slap Sasori right on the back whenever he was sunburned, which always resulted in some sort of physical retaliation.

Deidara couldn't help but feel a little bad for the red head, he himself had graduated high school last year so Sasori was stuck going to a new school with nobody he knew. The red head had never been the most social being, but he supposed now that he didn't have Deidara there to do most of the talking, he was going to have to break out of his comfort zone a bit. It would be good to the red head, Deidara decided with a determined nod of his head. He was drawn out of his thoughts when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. After digging around in his cargo pockets, he opened the message. And speak of the devil, Sasori had texted him and asked if he was busy tonight.

 _"Hey Deidara, you free tonight? Once I get my homework done I'm not going to have much of anything to do."_

Deidara couldn't help but smirk. He hit reply and started texting out his response.

 _"I'm free tonight, yeah. Come over whenever. Maybe I'll introduce you to my cute new neighbor, un."_

He couldn't help but think of his new neighbor, the shy little pinkette sure had a little bit of spunk to her. He couldn't stop replaying the moment she had decked Itachi in the face through his mind. Because not only had she actually landed the hit, she had walked away without any sort of retaliation. Much the opposite in fact, Itachi's stingy ass had actually complimented her for doing it! How the hell was that fair?! If he had hit Itachi, the black haired asshole would have made sure he was never able to use his hands again! Deidara was broken out of his mental ranting when his phone once again vibrated. Quickly opening the message he scoffed at Sasori's choice of words.

 _"Sounds good, brat. I'll let you know when I'm on my way over"_

Why the red head insisted on calling him a brat was beyond him, considering Sasori was YOUNGER than him. How the hell was he a brat? Not only was he older, he was taller! He didn't even try to begin to understand Sasori's thought process, it would take more brain power that Deidara could muster on an empty stomach. Speaking of his stomach, said organ thought it prudent to growl at him.

"Suppose I should figure out some dinner for myself...", the blond muttered. Take out or a store bought sandwich? What one sounded better tonight? The blond was in no way, shape, or form, to be trusted in the kitchen. Not if you wanted to room to stay intact. He decided it was a take out kind of night and grabbed his keys before slipping on his shoes. He made quick work of re-locking his door before heading down the hall. He couldn't help but smile when he saw his pink haired neighbor hauling an impressive amount of grocery bags up the stairs.

"Sakura, you want some help with those, yeah?", he asked as he made his way towards the pinkette.

"Oh, hey Deidara. Yeah, if you don't mind helping me that'd be great.", Sakura said gratefully, handing the blond a couple of her bags.

"Buy enough food, yeah? I though it was just you in the apartment. Got a boyfriend I should know about, yeah?", Deidara teased.

"No, no boyfriends! I just, uh, don't want to shop more than I have to, you know?", Sakura stuttered, she wasn't even going to attempt the blush she was sporting.

"Just teasing you, yeah. I would have noticed if there was another dude running around up here.", he smirked.

Sakura laughed lightly before fishing her keys out of her pockets and pushing her front door open. She ushered Deidara into her apartment and kicked her door shut softly before leading him towards the kitchen. She set her bags down before grabbing the couple she had given to her blond neighbor and set to work on putting everything away.

"So, where were you headed before you came to help me? If I may ask.", Sakura asked shyly. Now that she was really looking at him, she couldn't help but notice how attractive her neighbor was. His long blond hair seemed to glow, his bright blue eyes held a childlike mischief, and those mouth tattoos on his hands! And that smirk of his! ' _Oh god'_ , she thought, ' _I need to stop_!'

"Oh, I was just going to go get some take out. Me and a stove don't exactly mix, yeah", Deidara laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head.

Sakura couldn't help but giggle,"Well, if you want, and feel free to say no, you can join me for dinner if you want. As thanks for helping me carry my groceries."

"Really, yeah?!", Deidara exclaimed, he couldn't remember the last time he'd had a home cooked meal.

"Sure, why waste money on take out when I can cook.", Sakura smirked.

"You're a saint, cherry blossom, you know that?", he teased.

"Cherry blossom?", Sakura asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Well, you name means cherry blossom, yeah.", Deidara stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh yeah, I suppose that's true. Anyway, any requests for dinner? I can make just about anything.", she smiled.

"Well...I haven't had sushi in awhile. If that's not too much to ask, yeah..", he said sheepishly.

Sakura giggled,"I haven't had sushi in awhile and that actually sounds good right about now."

"You're the best!", he cheered.

She laughed at his childishness,"Well, make yourself at home and I'll get started on dinner, sound good?"

"Fine, but if you need help with anything just tell me, yeah?"

"Didn't you just tell me you were a kitchen hazard?", she smirked.

She had a point, he smiled sheepishly and propped himself against the table and watched her set to work on their dinner. Their dinner, that kind of had a nice ring to it. Now that he had a chance, he took a good look at his cute little neighbor. Her pink hair shifted with every move she made, he wondered if pink was her natural hair color. If it wasn't, it was an impressive dye job. Her jade green eyes showed her emotions, even if the rest of her didn't show it. Whether she knew that or not, he didn't know. He chuckled softly when she lifted herself onto the counter to grab the rice out of the cupboards. She had to be at least a foot shorter than himself. She was at most five foot two, her curve subtle but there. _'Alright perv, quit checking out your neighbor, yeah!'_

He broke out of his musing over the cute pinkette when he felt his phone vibrate in the pocket of his cargos, he fished the device out and saw that Sasori had texted him, telling him that he would be at the building in just a few minutes. Shit, Deidara had forgotten that the red head was going to come over at some point tonight. He didn't want to leave Sakura hanging, and he couldn't blow off the red head either. Sighing, he walked into the kitchen where Sakura was working. When she looked up at him, an eyebrow raised in question, he swallowed and decided it didn't hurt to ask if she minded another mouth to feed.

"So, I kind of forgot that a friend of mine was coming over tonight and I was wondering if you minded one more mouth to feed? Feel free to say no if you aren't comfortable with it.", he asked nervously.

Sakura giggled quietly at his nervousness.,"Sure, I don't mind. Any friend of yours is a friend of mine, I probably made too much for the two of us anyways."

Deidara let out a sigh of relief and ruffled Sakura's hair gently before thanking her and heading back over to the table to text the red head back. After sending the text telling the red head which apartment to go to, the blond settled himself back on Sakura's kitchen table. It wasn't until five minutes later that there was a knock on the door, the blond jumped off the table and made his way towards the door after letting the pinkette know the he'd grab the door.

He quickly unlocked the door and let the red head in and smirked.

"So, how's it going shorty, yeah?", Deidara smirked.

"Mind your tongue brat, whose home even is this? This obviously isn't your apartment, it's clean and I smell food that isn't something that could be considered chemical warfare.", the red head snapped.

"My, my, someone is touchy tonight. This is my neighbors apartment, yeah. She offered to cook dinner for us tonight because I helped her carry in her groceries.", he said, not even remotely bothered by the red heads grumpiness.

"Is your friend here, Deidara? Dinners done!", a voice called from the kitchen.

Sasori raised an eyebrow, that voice sounded awfully familiar...

"Yeah, he's here, yeah! We're coming!", Deidara cheered.

Both boys made their way towards the kitchen, both being assaulted with the delicious smells of sushi and rice. Both boys had to resist the urge to drool at the spread that had been set out on the table. Just how long had they been standing in the doorway, there was no way one person could fix the table to beautifully in such a short amount of time. Deciding that the details of how the food got there weren't important both boys sat at the table and waited for their host.

"So, who's this neighbor of yours, brat? Someone I know?", Sasori asked.

"Don't think so yeah, she moved in about a week ago, she's pretty nice.", the blond said.

"You talking about me...Sasori?!", Sakura exclaimed as she entered her dining room.

"Sakura?", Sasori asked, his eyes widened, well, that was a surprise.

"You two know each other, yeah?", Deidara asked, he was officially lost now.

"We go to the same school, we both started today. We spent the last few periods of class together.", Sakura explained." I can't believe you're the friend Deidara was talking about, talk about a small world."

"Likewise, I'm sorry you've had to put up with the brats stupidity.", Sasori apologized.

"Dude, I am right fucking here, yeah", Deidara snapped, his eye twitching slightly.

"Now now you two, no arguing. Eat before the food gets cold.", Sakura giggled as both boys rose themselves from their seats, fully intent on causing the other sort form of bodily harm. Normally, Sakura would have left them be, but blood in her sushi really didn't sound appealing.

Both boys looked at her, Deidara wide eyed and Sasori with his ever present bored look, before sitting back down. Aside from Itachi, nobody had ever told them to knock it off, hell they didn't even know why they were listening to her in the first place. Though she was smiling and giggling at their antics, they could tell that if they didn't listen it wouldn't end well for either one of them. Both sighed and gave each other one last glare before the grabbed their chopsticks and broke them apart to begin their meal.

Few words were spoken during dinner, though Sasori had to refrain from asking Sakura about what sort of relationship she had with the blond brat. Little did he know that Deidara was thinking the same thing about her. It really was a small world after all. Both never expected that they had both known the pink haired teen but they weren't about to question it. Though both of them had only known her for a short amount of time, in Sasori's case, less than twenty four hours, somehow Sakura had wiggled her way into both of their hearts.

Once dinner had been finished, every scrap of food she had prepared had been devoured by the two boys in front of her. They really were bottomless pits, she mused. Much like her boys back home...

 _'Girl, they haven't so much as contacted you since you moved here. It's been a week and they haven't bothered to call, text, text back, or even visit.'_ she thought sadly. She frowned to herself, completely missing the looks of concern that Sasori and Deidara sent her way. She shook her head and decided she wasn't going to think about such things when she had company. She didn't want to push her troubles onto anybody, especially when she had just met the two men in front of her.

"Why don't you go sit down, Sakura, the brat and I will clean up", Sasori offered with a small smile. He noticed that he'd smiled at this girl today more than he had anyone in years. Strange indeed.

"Oh, I couldn't ask you to do that, you're my guests!", she protested. And if Deidara's indication that he was a walking hazard in the kitchen was any indication, she wasn't sure she wanted the blond messing with her sink either.

"Nonsense, it's fine, you were nice enough to make us dinner. It's the least we can do, yeah.", the blond piped up before grabbing the stack of dishes in her hands.

Sakura sighed in defeat and decided she probably wasn't going to win this one and made her way towards the living room. She figured since they were going to do the dishes, she might as well get a start on her homework. Who knows, maybe she could get Sasori to help her with some of her work since he had probably gotten it all done before making his way to this side of town. She opened her math textbook and set to work on the homework assigned, now that she was really looking at it, it really did look like stuff she would never use in everyday life. But she decided she better do it, she didn't really feel like failing her classes because of her own opinions.

* * *

"So, Sasori, you seem to be pretty chummy with Sakura, yeah.", Deidara smirked,"Looks like you didn't need my help finding more friends after all, un"

"Hush brat, she was the only one who didn't basically throw herself at my feet to get a taste when I walked into class. Plus she ran into me on the street a few days ago but she doesn't seem to remember that, heh. A better question is how did you meet her, not stalking people are we, brat?", Sasori said, raising an eyebrow at the blond.

"I didn't stalk her, yeah! I welcomed her to the building on her first day here and then met her again when Itachi and I got into a fight in my apartment and she came to figured out what was going on! I may or may not have gotten thrown at her and landed on her. But that's beside the point, when she found out who that black haired bastard was, she decked him in the face!", Deidara explained frantically.

"Wait. Hold up, rewind. Did you just say that that cute little pink haired girl punched Itachi Uchiha and not only landed the hit, but actually lived?", the red haired said slowly, mouth slightly agape. When the blond nodded, the red head suddenly felt a little respect for the pink haired teenager. She really was something else, it took a lot of skill to be able to hit the Uchiha bastard.

"That's not all, yeah. He actually complimented her after she hit him..", Deidara smirked. He truly was enjoying the look of utter disbelief on Sasori's face.

Sasori turned his head in the direction of the pink haired girl in question, she really was something else. But what he couldn't figure out was why she had punched the elder Uchiha, but quickly decided that it wasn't his business. He'd ask her about it later sure, but at that very moment he wasn't going to bombard her questions. Both boys quickly fished up their tasks in the kitchen and made their way back out in Sakura's small living room. He noticed that it was quite normal looking, two couches and a chair. A coffee table in the middle made of oak, a book shelf in the corner overflowing with books. Mostly medical texts, he noticed. Her TV was off and average size, the remote laying on the coffee table next to her textbooks. It seemed she hadn't noticed their presence yet but instead of bothering her, the two took seats on the couch, leaving her in the middle of them with her on the floor with her back resting against the couch.

* * *

The hours seemed to fly by, when Sakura looked up from her finished homework, when she looked at the clock on the wall she was surprised to see that it was already eleven in the evening. If it was that late, where the hell were the boys. She heard a left shift next to her and looked up and was greeted with Deidara sleeping soundly on one side of her couch, she couldn't help but notice how peaceful he looked when he slept. She turned her head to the other side and noticed that Sasori was asleep as well. It seemed the two of them had wandered over to the living room while she was working. She must have really been focusing if she hadn't even noticed them sitting on either side of her for a few hours. She smiled softly at both of them before lifting herself from her position on the floor, instead of waking them up, she made her way back to her bedroom and grabbed a spare blanket she had. She quietly made her way back out to the living room and noticed that both boys had shifted so their legs were tangled in the middle of the couch, they really did look adorable.

She silently made her way back over to the boys and carefully draped the blanket over the both of them before carefully undoing Deidara's hair from its topknot. That couldn't be comfortable to sleep in, she decided. She set his hair tie on the end table behind him and shut off the lamp on the table before making her way to the bathroom to get ready for bed. While she brushed her teeth, she wondered to herself what had compelled her to allow the boys to continue to sleep on her couch rather than wake them up and send them on their way.

 _'Because they make you feel safe, you fool! You've been here a week and haven't heard from any of your friends back home! Give Naruto and Sasuke another week and if they don't call or text, move on from them. Those two out there seem to really care about you, even if they've only known you a for a short time. And you care about you, Sakura. Let them take away some of your loneliness...'_ she thought to herself.

She sighed and spit out the foam in her mouth before wiping away the foam around her mouth with the towel on the counter. After a quick trip to her room for some night clothes, she decided to join her new friends out in the living room and sat back down in her original spot on the floor, between the two of them. She wrapped her own blanket around herself and soon found herself drifting off to sleep.

* * *

 **Aww yeah, another chapter done! I don't know what it is, but I truly love seeing Deidara, Sasori, and Sakura together. It's just perfection on so many levels. But anyways, if you enjoyed, please comment, follow, and favorite. Again, I beta everything myself right now so if there are any mistakes, I'm sorry. If there are mistakes, please let me know so I can go back and fix them!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Yay! Another chapter done. Slightly disappointed in this one but oh well. As long as other people like it, that's all the matters, right? Anyways, on to the story. Again, if you enjoyed please review, favorite, and follow for updates on the story!**

 **S Lyubov'yu,**

 **Casper**

* * *

Sakura awoke when the shrill sound of her phones alarm went off somewhere by her thigh. She blindly reached for it, determined to cease its ringing. The minute she was able to locate the device she sighed in relief, she heard twin groans above her but it didn't sound as if the boys that were occupying her couch were quite ready to wake up. Honestly she wasn't either but she probably took longer to get ready for school than Sasori, and well, she didn't know what Deidara did during the day considering she hadn't seen him at school. She could only assume he had graduated the year before. He couldn't be that much older than her, could he? Shaking her head she lifted herself off of her living room floor and made her way towards her bedroom to find her cloths for the day.

After deciding on a band T-shirt and a pair of white skinny jeans, Sakura grabbed some fresh undergarments and headed towards the bathroom with the stealth of a mouse. She didn't want to wake up her boys until she had to. Wait. Did she just call Sasori and Deidara her boys? She wasn't even going to try to put forth the effort to think about her reasoning. It was too damn early for such deep thinking. She quickly stripped out of her pajamas and turned on the shower, while she waited for the shower to warm up she quickly brushed her teeth. When the water was nice and hot, she stepped in and made quick work of washing her hair and body.

Once she was satisfied that she was clean, she cut the water and stepped out. She grabbed a towel from the closet in her bathroom and made quick work of drying her body. She quickly threw on her cloths for the day and ran her brush through her hair before she made her way towards the kitchen. If her hunch was correct, the minute the boys smelled food they would wake up immediately. _'Bacon and eggs or pancakes.? Screw it, I want pancakes.'_ she thought.

After switching on the light in the kitchen, she grabbed everything she would need to make enough pancakes to feed a small army. After grabbing the flour, eggs, milk, and all of her other things she would need for the batter she began mixing them together in a large mixing bowl. She crouched below on of the counters and withdrew her skillet from the cupboard and set it on her stove to start heating up. She made quick work of beating together her ingredients before grabbing a random measuring cup and poured a few pancakes worth of batter into the skillet.

* * *

Deidara really didn't feel like waking up right then, he was in sleep filled heaven. Whatever he was laying on easily wasn't his bed. He decided he wanted to sleep on this thing for the rest of his days. He was about to force himself back to sleep when a scent hit his nose. Oh bless the Gods', someone was making pancakes! His eyes snapped open instantly and he took a moment to realize that he had fallen asleep on his pink haired neighbors couch. Whoops...

He mentally shrugged and started to swing his legs off of the couch when he felt another body on the couch with him. He raised his head and noticed that Sasori was asleep on the other side of the couch, he had yet to stir. He quickly reminded himself that the red head slept like the dead, food being cooked or not. While Deidara could be an asshole, he knew better than to not wake the red haired teen up when there was food involved. And he supposed that he needed to wake Sasori up anyways, it was a school day after all. _'Speaking of which, what the hell time is it, yeah?'_ He thought to himself. He sneaked a glace over at the clock on the living room wall and found it was only six thirty in the morning.

"It's too early, yeah...", he groaned.

After swinging his legs around Sasori and standing from the couch he went over to Sasori's side and gently shook his friends shoulder.

"Oi, Sasori, wake up man. We fell asleep at Sakura's, yeah", he said quietly as he shook the red heads shoulder. When he heard the red haired teen moan in protest he couldn't help but smirk.

"Go away, brat...", Sasori moaned, sleep evident in his voice. Yes, he knew he had fallen asleep on Sakura's couch. But was he ready to move just yet? Hell no, her couch was comfortable.

"But Sasori, she's making food.", Deidara whispered, knowing that the promises of food would change Sasori's mind.

The red heads eyes snapped open and he quickly jumped off of the couch, why hadn't the blond told him that food was involved? While it wasn't as if Sasori wasn't well fed, he, like the blond, really liked a good meal. And if Sakura's cooking from the night before was any indication of her skills in the kitchen, well, he gladly get his ass out of bed for that. The red head did a quick stretch and had to suppress a groan when he felt the joints in his back give a satisfied pop. Now that the duo was awake, they started to make their way towards the kitchen, hoping that Sakura wouldn't be mad about them falling asleep on her couch. They couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't woken them up and sent them back to Deidara's apartment. Not that they minded being left on the couch.

* * *

As the boys entered the kitchen, their noses were once again assaulted with the scent of freshly made pancakes. This girl really was a saint. If kidnapping was legal, they'd be committing the act against the pink haired girl in front of them. They honestly couldn't figure out why she was staring at them right now. Did she read their minds and know that they had both just thought about kidnapping her? They sure hoped not, they didn't want to get their asses kicked this early in the morning. If she wanted to kill them after breakfast, they wouldn't argue. But at that very moment, nothing was getting in their way of eating those fluffy pancakes that were behind her.

"Good morning you two, I hope I didn't wake you up while I was cooking. I tried to be as quiet as possible. Hope you two are hungry. Did you two sleep alright on the couch? I know it was probably kind of cramped but I didn't want to wake either of you up", Sakura asked softly, she really hadn't meant to wake them up, if that was the case.

"We slept fine, you didn't wake us up, yes, we are hungry, did I miss anything, yeah?", Deidara asked, tapping down on a finger every time he answered her questions. At least he hoped he'd gotten everything.

"You got everything, brat. Thank you for letting us stay, Sakura, but why did you not wake us up and send us back to the brats apartment? I mean, you haven't exactly known us for very long.", Sasori pointed out, ignoring the scathing look Deidara was giving him for referring to him as a brat again.

Sakura fidgeted against the counter she was leaning against, she knew one of them would ask why she hadn't woken them up and booted them out of her home. She honestly didn't know herself. Sure, she felt like she'd known them forever and felt she could trust both of them with anything, but she wasn't sure she was ready to tell them that...What if they thought she was silly or they didn't feel the same about her? She didn't think she could take the rejection right now, especially this early in the morning. Glancing up at the clock, she realized that if she and Sasori didn't want to be late for school, they had better get breakfast eaten.

"I guess I just didn't want to wake you two up, I don't really know why I didn't.", she shrugged.,"But let's not worry about that now. I hope you two like pancakes!"

Both boys shrugged at her answer, they knew there was more to it than that but they weren't going to pry. She would tell them when she was ready. Sakura quickly dished up two plates of freshly made pancakes and handed them to the boys before grabbing the syrup out of the cupboards and set it in front of them. After she made sure the boys were good, she went back and made herself a plate before joining them at the table. Deidara, she noticed, at his pancakes plain. While Sasori on the other hand, she was sure was going to give himself diabetes with the sheer amount of syrup he had poured on his pancakes. She quickly made a mental note to make sure he didn't eat anything with sugar while they were at school today. She didn't need his heart giving out on her during class and him leaving her alone to fend for herself. Nodding to herself, she let out a giggle and ignored the questioning glances that the boys shot her.

"Well, I guess you two probably have to get going to class, yeah?", Deidara asked, nodding his head towards the clock. It was already closing in on eight am. School started in about a half hour.

"Yeah, I suppose we should probably get going, huh.", Sakura sighed,"Sasori, what are you going to do about clothes? Just going to go in what you wore yesterday?"

"Not like I have much of a choice, I don't have time to run back to my place to change. Oh well, maybe the shallow girls at school will leave me alone this way.", he shrugged.

Sakura couldn't help but agree with him,"So, Deidara, plans for today or?", she asked.

"I have to work at ten, yeah. So I should probably head back to my apartment and get myself showered and ready.", he answered.

"Oh? Where do you work, Deidara? If I may ask.", Sakura asked with a small smile.

"I, uh, work at a bakery...decorating cookies...", he trailed off, a small blush dusting his cheeks.

Sakura couldn't help the slight snicker that left her lips at the thought of a kitchen hazard like the blond decorating cookies. Obviously Sasori had the same thoughts as she heard him chuckle softly beside the blond.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. See if I bring you two back any cookies, yeah.", Deidara pouted with his arms crossed. He may not be able to cook worth a damn but at least he could make a cookie look even more delicious.

After sharing another laugh at the blonds expense and a little begging from Sakura about bringing her home some cookies, Deidara got up and exited her apartment to go get ready for work. The two remaining teens both let out a sigh, school wasn't something they felt like doing today. But they decided against skipping as they would get their asses chewed later if they didn't attend. With one last sigh, the duo slipped on their shoes and made their way out of her apartment as well and headed down the stairs and slowly made their way towards school.

"I've been meaning to ask all morning, Sasori. Won't your parents be mad that you didn't come home last night? Or did you call them?", Sakura asked, kicking a stray rock on the sidewalk as they walked.

"It wouldn't make a difference if I called them or not, they died when I was a child. I live alone.", he muttered.

Sakura couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for her new friend. She knew all to well how it felt to lose your parents, but to lose them as a child. She could only imagine that it made the loss ten times harder. She suddenly felt a lot closer to the red head than she had before. She thanked the Gods for allowing her to meet the red head.

"I'm sorry Sasori, I understand how that is.", she said sadly.

"What do you mean, Sakura?", he inquired, slowing his walk a bit. If she was going to open up to him, he would risk being late for school. She was more important.

"I never told you why I moved here, did I?", she asked, when he shook his head, she continued.,"Well you see, about two weeks before I moved to Iwa, my parents died in an accident.", she said softly, her eyes shining with unshed tears. She hadn't cried once since she had moved here and she wasn't about to break down in front of her red haired friend.

Without warning, Sakura found herself tackled to the ground in what could be considered the tightest bear hug she had ever experienced. Her head was cradled in Sasori's hands, protecting it from the fall. He looked down at her with a sad look in his eyes and from what she saw, understanding.

"I'm sorry Sakura for your loss, Sakura, I really am. If you need someone to talk to, I'm all ears. I know what it's like to lose your family and not have anybody to talk to about it. I don't want you to go through that. Even though we've only known each other for a couple days, I feel a lot closer to you than I have with anyone since I was a child.", he whispered, laying his head in the crook of her neck. Just what was she doing to him? He wasn't a very emotional person, but somehow she made it easy for him to express himself. He didn't think he could stand it if she were to cry, especially since there wasn't anything he could do.

"I feel the same way Sasori, and thank you. I haven't really had anyone to talk to about any of this. Sasuke and Naruto helped me cope before I moved but since I've moved here, I haven't heard from them once. I tried calling and texting but they haven't responded once. They have a spare key to my apartment, but they haven't visited once. I really do appreciate that you're willing to listen to me if I need to talk about it, but know this, it goes both ways. I know your parents passed a long time ago, but if you ever want to talk about, I'll listen too.", she said softly in his ear, wiggling her arms out from between their bodies and wrapping her arms around him to return his unexpected hug.

She felt him nod against her neck but made no move to remove himself from her. She smiled softly, she really couldn't ask for a better friend. They laid on the sidewalk for a few minutes, just holding onto each other for comfort. With a sigh, Sasori sat up, neither teenager bothered by the fact that he was practically straddling her. With a sigh, Sasori looked into Sakura's eyes and smirked.

"Say, Sakura, ass chewing be damned. Let's ditch our classes and go bug the brat at work. I don't know about you, but after these little revelations, I'm not really feeling up to going to school.", he said, eyebrow quirked in question. He had no doubt that she was going to agree with him.

"I think I'm going to have to agree with you, but do you even know what bakery Deidara even works at? Plus what are we going to do for a couple hours while we wait for his shift to start?", she asked with a smirk. She'd never skipped school before, hell, she never even considered it. But after what her and Sasori had just told each other, she wasn't sure she wanted to be away from her from most of the day during school.

"Well, our first stop is my place. Since I won't have to worry about fan girls, I want to change and take a shower. And as for which bakery the brat works at, there's only two of them in town so we'll just go to them and figure out which one he is at. And as for killing time? We'll just wander around town for the time being.", he explained. He planned everything out in his head while Sakura was contemplating on skipping or not.

"Works for me", she shrugged,"But first things first, you wanna get your bony ass off of me?"

Sasori let out a chuckle and removed himself from her lap before offering her a hand up, which she grabbed immediately and smiled at him when he pulled her to her feet. She gestured with her hand for him to lead the way back to his place and the two set off towards Sasori's apartment. Sakura couldn't help but imagine what kind of place the red head lived. She wondered if she'd be able to find some sort of blackmail material to threaten him with later if he ever pissed her off. She giggled softly to herself, completely missing the questioning look that Sasori sent her way. With a shrug, he deduced that she was just weird and continued to lead her towards his apartment building.

* * *

After about a fifteen minute walk and a few words exchanged on the way, the two teens walked up the stairs towards Sasori's humble abode. When the red head unlocked his door and threw the door open, Sakura's jaw dropped in awe. Somehow she had expected there to be junk everywhere. But she had been dead wrong, the damn place was immaculate, it just wasn't fair! Nothing was out of place, nothing clashed, it was perfect! She made a mental note to ask Sasori to help her if she ever decided to redecorate. Noticing his friends look of shock, Sasori couldn't help but chuckle.

"It's not much but it's home. Make yourself at home, I'm going to grab a quick shower and we'll head to the bakery, sound good?", he asked, secretly adoring the look on her face. She was too damned cute for her own good. He swore to himself that he would protect her from being hurt by anyone.

Sakura nodded her head, shooing him off so he could take a shower. With one last smirk, Sasori made his way towards his bathroom, leaving Sakura to explore his home. Once she heard the door to the bathroom click and lock, Sakura removed her shoes and looked around his living room first. The walls were a tasteful cream color and the furniture was a delicate shade of navy, somehow she had expected his furniture to be red. He had bookshelves pushed against one wall, overflowing with books. She would have to peruse through his collection at a later time, she made sure to make yet another mental note. She sure was doing that a lot today, and it wasn't even noon!

Next she decided to look around his kitchen. She decided quickly that it was just like every other kitchen she'd ever seen. White cabinets, ordinary counter tops, your run of the mill apartment grade fridge, she did however notice that the bastard had a dishwasher. So unfair. She quickly decided she had best exit his kitchen, less he walked out to find her eating all of his food. She may be skinny, but she could out eat most grown men. She blamed that little fact on growing up with all male friends. She quickly shook her head, she wasn't even going to think about her 'friends' back home, if she could even consider them her friends anymore. She noticed that thinking such a thought didn't really make her feel all that sad anymore, she shrugged her shoulders. She supposed she was just moving on with her life would bring more than just a new high school. She decided to think more on that later when she was home.

She decided she would just curl up on Sasori's couch and wait for him to be done with his morning rituals, she didn't want to snoop too much around his home. How awkward would it be if he had exited his bathroom to find her snooping around in his bedroom. Yeah, that would be totally awkward and she didn't think she was up for awkward moments at that point in time. Not after the somewhat 'feelsy' moment they had had before they decided to skip school and just chill out. And stalk their blond friend of course, she couldn't forget that part.

Her ears perked up when she heard the bathroom door open and looked up over the couch to see Sasori walking out with a towel wrapped around his neck. She smiled warmly at him before settling herself back down on the couch to wait for him to be ready to go. It was only a little after eight so they had plenty of time before Deidara would be at work. She wondered what the look on Deidara's face would be when he saw the two of them standing in the bakery wanting to sample his prettily decorated sweets. Sakura could taste the sugar already. She quickly reminded herself to not allow Sasori to eat too many sweets while they were out. God only knew he had had enough sugar already that morning with the sheer amount of syrup he had used on his pancakes. She didn't even realize that she had lost herself in her thoughts once again and completely missed Sasori making his way over to the couch.

"Oi, you ready to so, doll?", Sasori piped up as he looked down at Sakura from his position from behind the couch.

Sakura let out a startled yelp and looked up at Sasori with wide eyes. When they hell had he gotten there? He raised an eyebrow at her and repeated his question about being ready to go. When she quickly nodded, she lifted herself off the couch and made her way towards his door and slipped her shoes back on. Once both of them had their shoes back on they made quick work of locking his door and made their way down the hallway and back outside. Once they were outside, Sakura sneaked a peek at her friend and noted that he looked pretty damn good now that he'd had a shower and a change of clothes. He'd gone with a tight black t-shirt and a pair of white washed jeans and his black high topped sneakers. How he could make such a simple outfit look so good, she'd never know.

"So where to first, Sasori? I don't exactly know where any of the bakeries are so I'll have to follow your lead on this one", she laughed. She sure as hell hoped he knew where he was going, because again, she had to idea whatsoever.

"There's the one on Main Street, which we'll check out first and if that one is a bust, we'll go to the one 7th Avenue.", he explained. He figured that they were more likely to find Deidara on Main Street, seeing as that bakery was the busier of the two that were in Iwa. When Sakura nodded, Sasori threw an arm around her shoulders and led her down the road. It would be about a twenty five minute walk on foot, not that either of them minded. It was a nice day and they had time to kill so taking their sweet time wouldn't make to big of a difference.

* * *

When the bakery on Main came into view, Sakura decided she didn't feel like walking anymore and decided that Sasori's back looked like a more pleasant mode of transportation. She smirked to herself before coming to the halt on the sidewalk, Sasori was none the wiser. Once he was a good distance away, Sakura took off in a dead run towards him and pounced on his back with a shout of "INCOMING!" and wrapped her arms around his neck and wound her legs around his waist. Sasori let out a grunt and stumbled a little before grabbing her legs and straightening himself back up. He turned his head towards her and shot her a half-hearted glare before continuing to walk towards the bakery.

"You know, if you wanted to piggyback, all you had to do was ask.", he huffed. He wasn't really angry or upset, he just wanted to give her a little crap about practically tackling him. Not that he had any room to talk about tackling people, considering he had sort of tackled her in a bear hug earlier that morning.

"True, but what fun would that have been, hmm?", she giggled before resting her chin on top of his head. She felt Sasori chuckle under her chin and couldn't help but smile.

When the duo got to the door of the bakery, Sasori lifted his hands from Sakura's legs and pushed the door of the bakery open. Both had to control their urge to drool when the scents of freshly baked muffins, doughnuts, cookies, and various other baked goods assaulted their noses. Whoever baked the goods obviously knew what the hell they were doing. If the delicious smells permeating throughout the building was any indication to their skills. Once the door to the shop closed behind them, Sakura made a move to get off of Sasori's back but stopped when his hands went back to supporting her legs on his back. With a shrug she let him do as he pleased, if he wanted to carry her on his back who was she to stop him?

Sasori walked up to the counter and ran the little bell, when they heard rustling in the back of the bakery they looked at each other with matching confused expressions. Both shrugged and decided to wait until whoever was in the back finished what they needed to do.

About three minutes later, a man with slicked back silver hair made his way towards the counter. He was wearing a plain pair of black track pants with a matching black t-shirt and wore an apron over his shirt. His apron was covered with flour, both teenagers figured he must be the one baking the sweets they had smelled when they had entered the building. The silver haired man looked at Sasori before his gaze made its way over to Sakura and he proceeded to stare at her. Sakura raised an eyebrow at him questioningly and he just smiled at her lecherously. The pink haired teen couldn't help but cringe a little from her place on Sasori's back.

"Well, what the hell do you two want?", the silver haired man snapped.

"Oh, right, we're looking for a brat named Deidara. Does he work here?", Sasori asked, tightening his grip on Sakura just a little. He didn't think he liked the way the silver haired man was looking at Sakura very much.

"Oh, you mean the pussy? Yeah, he's here. One sec.", the silver man smirked before yelling,"OI PUSSY, THERE'S A RED HEAD AND A PINK HAIRED BITCH HERE FOR YOU!", before making his way to the back of the store.

"What did he just call me?!", Sakura screeched, struggling to get off of Sasori's back.

With wide eyes, Sasori let go of Sakura's legs and let her drop to the floor gracefully. Before he had a chance to try to calm her down and remind her that they were there for Deidara, she took of in a dead run and jumped clean over the counter in pursuit of the silver haired man. He made a mental note to never piss her off, or call her a bitch for the matter. He couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the man once Sakura got her hands on him.

* * *

The minute Sakura felt her feet hit the floor she took off in a dead run after the man who had had the balls to call her a bitch. Instead of running around the counter like a sane person, she opted for vaulting over the counter by using one hand as leverage. Once her feet hit the floor again she continued her pursuit of the silver haired man. It didn't take too long to catch up with him. When he heard her running up to him, he turned his head wide eyed as he saw a blur of pink coming straight for him. Before he could register what the hell was going on he felt a fist connect with the side of his jaw. With a howl of pain he fell backwards onto the floor, he held his abused jaw and glared up at the young woman in front of him.

"What the hell was that for, bitch?!", he shouted.

"That's for calling he a bitch!", she shouted back before smacking him upside the head for calling her a bitch again.

"What the hell is with all the noise back here, yeah?", another voice spoke up.,"I heard yelling...what the hell? Blossom what the hell are you doing here?"

Sakura smiled nervously at her blond neighbor,"Well...Sasori and I kind of ditched school and decided to visit you at work..."

"Ah, gotcha, where is Sasori anyway? And why the hell is Hidan on the floor, yeah?", Deidara asked, laughing quietly at Hidan's position on the floor.

Sakura pointed in the direction of the front counter,"I kind of left Sasori in the front when I chased this asshole down and punched him for calling me a bitch.", she scowled down at the silver haired man, Hidan.

"Sakura...", Deidara began, a mock glare on his face as he looked at her,"Remind me to never piss you off or call you a bitch,yeah."

"That's what I said too, brat", Sasori piped up from the front of the store, obviously hearing the whole conversation.

Deidara frowned in the direction of the front before beckoning the red headed teenager to the back of the store to join the rest of them. With a sigh he pointed to Hidan on the floor and began to explain.

"This idiot right here is my friend Hidan, he works here at the bakery with me and he's kind of an asshole. Don't pay too much attention to his insults, yeah. They're usually his way of giving a compliment or something, yeah.", he sighed again.

"Compliments my ass, pussy. I'm gonna get you back for this, you pink haired bitch", Hidan sneered in Sakura's direction. Upon hearing the word bitch leave his mouth, both Sasori and Deidara slowly backed away from the now fuming Sakura before she pounced at Hidan, fully intending on murdering him.

"So, skipping school, yeah?", Deidara asked Sasori as he watched his tiny pink haired neighbor beat up his coworker.

"Yep, and now I'm quite glad we did. This was more entertaining than I expected.", Sasori smirked.

"Agreed, yeah. Feel free to stop by more often.", the blond agreed.

Stepping around the blob of pink fury on the floor and ignoring Hidan's howls of pain, Deidara grabbed two fresh muffins off of a cooling rack before heading back over to his red haired friend and offered him one. When Sasori accepted the muffin, the two made their way over to an unoccupied counter and hoisted themselves up as they watched their cute pink haired friend beat a grown men senseless. Both making sure to remind themselves once again to never refer to her as a bitch or piss her off in any way, shape, or form.

* * *

 **Annnnnd done! I couldn't help but throw in some more SasoSaku moments. I still haven't decided who she's going to end up with! Maybe I'll let the readers decide, yeah?**

 **As always, review, favorite, and follow if you enjoyed! I do not have a beta currently so if there are mistakes please let me know so I can go back at a later date and fix them! As always, advise and criticism is always appreciated! Until next time!**


	7. Chapter 6

**I get this sinking feeling that I'm going to end up introducing all of the members of the Akatsuki at some point during this story. I can feel it. Considering I never planned on Hidan even being in this. But then I realized that I missed his sailor mouth that reminds me so much of myself. Anyway, onto the sixth chapter! As always, please review, favorite, and follow if you enjoyed!**

 **S Lyubov'yu,**

 **Casper**

* * *

After a fair amount of begging and bribery, the boys were eventually able to pry Sakura off of Hidan before she decided that she felt that murder was a good idea at that moment in time. Once Sakura was pried off of the silver haired baker, they sat her on a counter and shoved a muffin into her hands to keep her occupied so she wouldn't be tempted to attack Hidan again once he'd started screaming and cursing all over again. Both boys let out a sigh and couldn't figure out who had the worse temper when they were pissed, Hidan or Sakura. Neither one really wanted an answer to that question either. Both boys made mental notes to never leave the two alone together, lest they wanted a call from the police claiming that one of them had met their untimely demise by the hands of the others. Neither were sure they'd be able to afford the bail money.

Sakura sat on the counter munching away at the pre-bribed pastry and watched with amusement as the silver haired man raised himself off of the ground, glaring at her the entire time. Needless to say, she smiled sweetly at him before popping another piece of muffin in her mouth.

"Well, that was interesting, yeah. Anyways, why'd you two decide to skip school and come visit me, hmm? And how'd you know which bakery to go to?", Deidara asked, turning towards the two teens.

"Well, you see, it's like this...I kind of had a bit of a break down and Sasori and I decided that we didn't feel like going to school. Once that was settled we remembered that you had said you worked at a bakery and we didn't know what else to do so we decided we might as well stop by and see you. As for knowing which bakery, it was a wild guess. Apparently there are only two of them in town so it was kind of a hit or miss if we had the right one.", Sakura explained with a shrug, popping the last piece of muffin in her mouth before turning to eye the other muffins cooling on the racks.

With a sigh, Deidara handed her another muffin, totally ignoring the dirty look that Hidan gave him. If muffins were what was keeping her from murdering Hidan on the bakery floor, he'd gladly sacrifice a muffin or two.

"So, why'd you have a mental break down, Pinky? Get in a fight with mommy and daddy? Your boyfriend break up with you?", Hidan smirked before raising an eyebrow at the mention of her parents.

Sasori quickly threw an arm around Sakura's waist to make sure she didn't jump off the counter to go for round two. Hidan didn't know not to mention her parents, he'd never met her before after all. Hell, Deidara didn't know that either. She'd only just told Sasori that morning. He glanced over at her, making sure she wasn't about to go into a rage or cry. He could deal with her beating the piss out of someone, but he didn't think he could deal with her crying. He was only just now remembering how to express his emotions again, he didn't think he was ready to deal with his friend as a sobbing mess just yet.

"For your information, you insensitive asshole, my parents died less than a month ago. So no, I didn't have a fight with them, you can't fight the dead.", Sakura said coldly before hoping off the counter and storming out of the bakery, not even bothering to see if Sasori followed her.

"Blossom's parents died?", Deidara said slowly before turning to Hidan, murder written all over his face. While this was all news to him, it didn't make him any less pissed off.

"Yes, she told me this morning. It's the reason she and I decided to skip school, neither of us felt like dealing with other students after we opened up about our parents' passing. You, Hidan, are an asshole.", Sasori sneered, he couldn't even bring himself to look at the silver haired man, if he did, there was a high chance that he would beat the man beyond recognition.

"How the hell was I supposed to know that, huh?!", Hidan exclaimed, he didn't know why, but he actually felt bad about upsetting the pink haired teen. He frowned, why the hell did he care? He'd never cared about hurting anyone before. With a sigh, he turned towards the front of the bakery, digging the keys out of his pockets in the process.

"Where the hell do you think you're going, yeah?!", Deidara snarled, turning to follow the silverette, beckoning Sasori to follow him towards the front.

"Going to look for Pinky, what else what I be doing, hmm?", Hidan asked, turning to look at them with a raised eyebrow.

"Why do you feel the need to go after her, hmm? If memory serves, you never cared before if you hurt someone of pissed them off yeah", the blond asked,"And what about the shop, we can't just leave can we?"

"I don't know why I feel the need to go after her, alright? I just do. And yes, we're all going after her. Somebody has to keep her from kicking my ass again when we find her. Don't forget, one of my best friends owns this place, he'll understand if we leave for something like this.", Hidan explained with a shrug of his shoulders before he ushered the other two out the door and locked it behind them. They quickly decided that heading back in the direction of Sasori's apartment would be there best bet since the pink haired teen wasn't very familiar with the side of town they were on. Without needing any more motivation, the three men took off in a dead run in the direction that they suspected Sakura had run off in.

* * *

About four blocks away from the bakery, Sakura decided that she was going to hide herself away in the cute little diner in front of her. It looked peaceful enough and she wasn't in the mood for anymore excitement at the moment. She hadn't meant to spill the death of her parents to Deidara and Hidan, but when he brought them up it had left her lips without a second thought. She didn't want their pity, nor did she want an apology. She just wanted to beat the crap out of Hidan and be done with it. But she'd already done that today so it wouldn't really get her point across at this point. Sulking with a cup of tea would just have to do for now.

She sat at a cute little booth in the back of the diner and took a look around. It really was cute in there, lovely cream walls, baby blue curtains tied back on the windows, a fire place off in a far corner, the place really was quite cozy. When the waiter came up to take her order she ordered a simple cup of jasmine tea and a plate of dango. Once the waiter left her table she let out another sigh. She knew she had every right to be upset but why did she feel bad for snapping at the silver haired man? It wasn't like he knew that her parents had died and that she was a little sensitive about it. She didn't know what to at this point so she did what every frustrated teen did, groan and slam her forehead against the table.

"Rough day?", a voice asked, it was rather gruff but she could hear the concealed amusement in his voice.

"You have no idea...I yelled at someone for saying something they shouldn't have but they didn't know not to say it and then I ran off.", Sakura grumbled into the tabletop.

"Well, what did they say? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.", the voice came again.

Sakura heard a plate and a cup being set on her table and raised her head. When she looked up she was greeted to the sight of not only her food but a six and a half foot tall man with navy hair, white eyes, and what looked like tattoos of gills under his eyes. What caught her off guard more than anything was the fact the the mans skin had a blueish-gray tint to it. She wasn't about to question it, but she couldn't help but find it a little interesting. With a sigh, she decided if he was going to let her vent a little she might as well take him up on his offer to talk about it.

"Well, you see, I'm originally from Konoha. I moved to Iwa about three weeks ago, two weeks after my parents died in a car accident. Hidan, the man I yelled at, didn't know they had died. I'd just met him today and he made a comment about my parents. I kinda yelled at him about my parents being dead and took off, leaving my friends Deidara and Sasori with him. And now I'm here.", Sakura explained with a sigh and looked down at her food, taking a quick sip of her tea.

"Hidan made a crude comment about your parents, I'm assuming.", he responded with a sneer.

"Something like that. I'm Sakura, by the way.", Sakura said kindly, just telling somebody about it and getting it off her chest was what she needed. She already felt better. She didn't know why she was introducing herself, but she supposed it was the polite thing to do since the man was letting her vent to him.

"Don't let what Hidan says get to you, I actually went to high school with the asshole. He doesn't have a very good filter and he doesn't exactly understand the words empathy or tact. And I'm Kisame. A pleasure.", Kisame chuckled, making a mental note to put forth the effort to beat manners into Hidan again next time he saw the silver haired moron.

"Would you like to sit with me? Or are you too busy working right now?", Sakura offered, she didn't know why, but she felt pretty comfortable with Kisame, though she'd only known him for all of five minutes. Oh well, maybe she was just a good judge of character.

Kisame shrugged before taking a seat on the opposite side of the booth,"So you know Deidara too, huh? How's blondie?"

"Yeah, he's my neighbor. He's a pretty nice guy. As far as I know he's alright, I haven't exactly known him long though. Just a couple weeks, he actually welcomed me to the building. I met Sasori a week after I moved here at school. I met Itachi too but that didn't go too well.", she trailed off, raising an eyebrow at Kisame when he burst into belly busting laughter.

"Y-you! Punched Itachi!", he howled.

Sakura gaped at him, how the hell did he know that?!

"Itachi's one of my best friends, Pinky", he snickered.

Sakura couldn't help but laugh a little with him, it seemed everyone she was meeting in this town and connecting with, aside from Itachi, were all connected somehow. I guess it was a small world after all. Once she had calmed herself enough, she quickly ate her dango and finished her tea with a satisfied sigh. She took a moment to wonder if Sasori and Deidara were looking for her, they didn't exactly have her cell number to text her or call her to ask where she had gone. Not to mention the fact that she didn't know her way home from here either, she decided she'd just have to wait and see for now. If all failed, she'd ask Kisame for directions back to her side of town.

"I wonder what Sasori and Deidara are doing right now, I don't know if they are looking for me or not. I did kind of run off after blowing up.", she groaned lowly.

"Well, do you have either of their numbers?", Kisame asked, when Sakura shook her head, he dug into his pockets and pulled out his phone. He grabbed a pen out of his pocket as well and wrote a few phone numbers down on a napkin before handing it over to Sakura.,"Top one is Hidan's and bottom one is Blondie's."

"Thanks, I'm going to avoid texting Hidan. I still think he's a royal dick, plus I don't really know him. I'll send Deidara a quick text to see what's up.", she smiled, taking her phone out of her pocket and opening up a new text.

 _"Deidara, it's Sakura. Sorry I ran off, I shouldn't have! I'm at the diner four blocks down from the bakery."_ Send.

After sending the text, she set her phone on the table top and turned back to Kisame when she heard him speak up again.

"I gotta get back to work, Pinky, just call for me if you need anything.", he said with a slight smirk, when she nodded to him he stood from the booth and made his way back towards the diners kitchen. She watched him go with a small smile. Everybody in this town was so much nicer than the people back in Konoha. Except Hidan, she added as an afterthought. She was still a bit ticked about his parent comment. She was broken out of her thoughts when she heard her phone vibrate against the table top. She quickly unlocked it and saw that she had gotten an answer form Deidara.

 _"Be there in a few minutes! How'd you get my number,yeah? I don't remember giving it to you."_

She couldn't help but laugh a little and texted him back," _See you soon. And it's a secret ;)"_ Send.

She set her phone back down and turned herself so she could see the front door of the diner. He said that he would be there in just a few minutes so it wouldn't hurt to keep a look out for him and Sasori. At least she assumed that the red head would be with him still. She felt her phone vibrate again and picked it up once again, reading the text she had gotten from Deidara.

 _"That's not fair, yeah! Who gave it to you?! Sasori said he didn't give it to you, he doesn't even have your number, yeah!"_

Sakura snorted, his use of the word "yeah" even crossed over in his texting. _"But it's a secret, and I'm a lady. It's unladylike to tell secrets to people whom they are not for! Just kidding. I got it from an old friend of yours. Kisame."_ Send.

His response came almost as soon as the text had been sent. _"You met Fish-Kun?! Diner in sight, see you in a sec, yeah!"_

Sakura broke into a fit of giggles when she read the blonds nickname for Kisame. She supposed it fit, considering his gill tattoos on his face. She looked up, still giggling, when she heard the bell on the diners main door open. She recognized both Deidara and Sasori the minute they stepped in the building and decided that she would keep up her hiding just a bit longer. She quickly put her phone on silent and tried to make herself look as less obvious as possible. It wasn't exactly easy with pink hair but it didn't hurt to try.

* * *

"Alright, this is where Blossom said she was, but where is she, yeah?", Deidara questioned when he and the others entered the diner.

"How hard can it be to spot a girl with pink hair, moron.", Hidan scoffed as he scanned the dining room. He couldn't really see the back of the dining room but so far he couldn't spot her. He supposed she could be in the bathroom or in the part of the dining room that he couldn't see.

"I don't see her up here, let's check the back", Sasori spoke quietly. He didn't know why, but since Sakura had run off, he felt as if his emotions had disappeared all over again.

The three nodded in agreement and made there way towards the back of the dinning room.

* * *

Sakura knew they were getting closer to her once she heard their footsteps pick up once again, they were heading straight for her. She heard her name called softly and looked up to see Kisame beckoning her towards the door to the kitchen. With a smirk, she took one last glace over to the direction that the boys were coming from. She knew Hidan was with them but she wasn't even going to wonder why. She didn't really care at this point. With one final glance, she bolted towards the door that Kisame was at. She looked back and saw a body turning around the corner and didn't think twice before she launched her body at Kisame's waiting arms.

She felt two strong arms wrap around her body and pull her into the kitchen. She let out a breath once he set her back on solid ground. The duo looked at each other before they both broke into another bout of belly busting laughter. Both had a few tears escape their eyes from the force of their laughter. They weren't even going to try to keep their voices down. Sakura wasn't trying to avoid the boys, she just wanted to play a good game of Cat and Mouse with them.

"So, what's the next step to our impromptu game of Cat and Mouse, Kisame?", Sakura smirked, looking at her accomplice.

"We're going to circle through the kitchen to the other door and go out through there back into the dining room. From there, we're going to come up behind the boys and you tackle the red head since I don't know him and I'll take down Blondie and Hidan. Sound good?", he smirked.

"Oh hell yeah", Sakura responded, returning his smirk before they made their ways back through the kitchen and back towards the dining room. When they reached they second door in the kitchen, Kisame poked his head out to make sure the coast was clear before he beckoned the pinkette to follow him. They walked into the dining room, Sakura partially concealed behind the six and half foot man in front of her. The two rounded the corner towards the back of the dining room and noticed the trio of boys standing in the middle, looking around trying to spot Sakura. With one last smirk towards each other, they both took off in a dead run towards their targets.

* * *

Sasori felt something hard, yet squishy, make impact with his back. The sound that made its way out of his throat would forever go to him to his grave. His body collapsed to the ground and he looked behind him fully prepared to rip into whoever had run into him before he caught the familiar sight of pink hair. He strained his neck some more and his eyes widened when he realized that not only had she tackled him, she was straddling the small of his back. He couldn't even try to fight the blush that made its way across his cheeks.

"Sakura..would you mind not only explaining why you are sitting on me, but why you felt the need to tackle me?", he questioned calmly, he only sighed when he heard her giggling from her perch on the small of his back. He wiggled slightly trying to tell her to get off of him, she didn't comply. She was quite comfortable. Both looked over towards the other two when they heard cursing, grunting, and threats of physical pain. Sakura and Sasori burst into laughter when the were greeted with the sight of Hidan and Deidara squished together underneath Kisame's hulking body.

Sasori wiggled again, silently telling Sakura to get up. This time she complied and offered him a hand up. He grabbed her hand and she hauled him back to his feet before they made their way over to the dog pile of grown men on the floor.

"Sorry you got dragged into that Deidara, I'll make it up to you. Hidan, I'd say I'm sorry too, but Karma is kind of a bitch and you just got served.", Sakura smiled kindly as she grabbed Deidara's hand and tried to pull him out from underneath her navy haired friend. She heard Kisame shift his weight so it was easier to pull the blond out. Once Deidara was freed, Kisame returned his full weight to its position of crushing Hidan, who at this point was whimpering about his back being in pain.

"I came here to apologize, Pinky! Tell the fish to get off of me!", Hidan whined.

"Fine...", Sakura pouted,"Kisame, let him up I guess."

With a shrug, Kisame started to get up, making sure he drove his knee into Hidan's back one last time for good measure.

Hidan slowly got to his feet and shot the blue skinned man a dirty look before making his way towards the pink haired teen. She shot him a slight glare before sighing.

"I forgive you, Hidan.", she said,"You didn't know and I kind of overreacted. I'm sorry too. But I'm not going to apologize for Kisame tackling you or beating the piss out of you earlier. You kind of deserved it."

Hidan smirked and nodded, he could live with that. He wasn't about to point out that she had no reason to apologize to him, but he would take what he could get.

"Now that everything is all good in the hood, how about some lunch, yeah?", Deidara cheered.

"I agree with the brat, but if he ever says 'good in the hood' ever again, someone maim him", Sasori rolled his eyes.

"I could eat.", Kisame and Hidan said in unison.

"How about we all get ramen.", Sakura suggested. She smiled when all four men in front of her nodded in agreement. Wait a minute, four men? She was the only girl, Sakura wasn't sure why, but all of her friends being guys really didn't bother her. Though she questioned if she could really consider Hidan her friend just yet. But then again, he had come with Sasori and Deidara to look for her. And he did apologize, which from what the others had told her, was something he never did. She decided she would just have to wait and see.

The group of friends waited silently for Kisame to clock out before they all headed out the door, thoughts of the early mornings events still fresh in their minds.

* * *

 **Well, there's another chapter done. Wasn't planning on Kisame being in this story either but I always considered Kisame and Sakura and one of my top BROTPS. So, it looks like our blue skinned friend is here to stay I guess. Anyways! Until next time, please review, favorite, and follow if you enjoyed. Any mistakes that there are, please inform me as I do not have a beta at this time.**

 **And once again, the pairing for this story is still up in the air, if there's even going to be a pairing. Opinions? Let me know.**


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